Ferry Services

Mr Jim Mather (Highlands and Islands) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what representations it has received regarding the European Court of Justice’s ruling on the Altmark Trans bus company case and what discussions it has had with Caledonian MacBrayne and other transport providers regarding the judgement.

Nicol Stephen: We have received some representations from interested parties regarding the recent Altmark judgement. We will ensure that we discuss the matter with Caledonian MacBrayne Ltd before we approach the commission in relation to Clyde and Hebrides ferry services.

Firearms

Mr Brian Monteith (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how many guns were legally held in each of the last three years.

Cathy Jamieson: The figures are available in the statistical bulletin Firearm Certificates Statistics, Scotland 2002, copies of which are available in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib. number 29674)

Firearms

Mr Brian Monteith (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how many guns it estimates were illegally held in each of the last three years.

Cathy Jamieson: There are no Scottish Executive estimates of the number of guns illegally held in Scotland.

  Firearms legislation is reserved and we will continue to work with the UK Government to safeguard the public against gun crime. Chapter 8 of the Criminal Justice Bill currently before the UK Parliament contains provisions to tighten further the law in relation to illegal firearms. The recent firearms amnesty which took place between 31 March and 30 April 2003 resulted in 3,993 firearms being removed from circulation in Scotland.

Health

Ms Wendy Alexander (Paisley North) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what the year-on-year improvements have been in (a) coronary heart disease, (b) cancer and (c) stroke mortality rates in (i) the NHS Argyll and Clyde area and (ii) Scotland since 1990.

Hugh Henry: Relevant death rates are presented in the following table.

  Rates per 100,000 Population

  

 
 Argyll 
  and Clyde
 Scotland


 (a) 
  Coronary Heart Disease
 (b) 
  Cancer
 (c) 
  Stroke
 (a) 
  Coronary Heart Disease
 (b) 
  Cancer
 (c) 
  Stroke


 1990
 343
 291
 175
 335
 294
 157


 1991
 349
 287
 171
 332
 293
 157


 1992
 349
 308
 164
 325
 298
 155


 1993
 361
 317
 188
 332
 304
 165


 1994
 311
 325
 159
 299
 297
 151


 1995
 306
 315
 173
 293
 298
 152


 1996
 314
 324
 146
 288
 298
 140


 1997
 310
 304
 148
 276
 293
 137


 1998
 285
 308
 150
 264
 291
 136


 1999
 292
 307
 153
 263
 292
 134


 2000
 276
 314
 159
 245
 295
 134


 2001
 262
 312
 152
 235
 300
 131


 2002
 256
 307
 145
 231
 298
 133



  Notes:

  1.The rates have been calculated using the latest available mid-year population estimates. The rates have not been age-standardised.

  2.The International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD9), 1990 to 1999, and Tenth Revision (ICD10), 2000 to 2002, categories and codes selected are given below:

  (a) Ischaemic heart disease: ICD9, 410–414; ICD10, I20–I25.

  (b) Malignant neoplasms: ICD9, 140–208; ICD10, C00–C97.

  (c) Cerebrovascular disease: ICD9, 430–438; ICD10, I60–I69.

Housing

Murray Tosh (West of Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-2552 by Mrs Mary Mulligan on 25 September 2003, where the housing being proposed for transfer is located and how many houses are involved; whether agreement has been reached on the valuation for transfer of each of these local authorities’ stock, and whether agreement has been achieved in each case about initiating a ballot to approve the transfers.

Mrs Mary Mulligan: The information requested is as follows:

  

 Council
 Location
 Estimated 
  Number of Houses
 Ballot


 East Dunbartonshire
 Hillhead
 1,000
 Successful ballot achieved



 Edinburgh
 Craigmillar
 190
 Successful ballot achieved



 Fife
 Abbeyview, Dysart, Lochgelly, 
Buckhaven and Methil, Lower Methil, 
 5,530
 Ballot date to be agreed




  The final transfer price has yet to be agreed in all these transfers.

Housing

Murray Tosh (West of Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-2780 by Mrs Mary Mulligan on 30 September 2003, what the current estimate is of the transfer valuation of Western Isles and Argyll and Bute Councils’ housing stock; why the proposed stock transfer of Shetland Council's housing stock is no longer under consideration, and whether it, or Communities Scotland, is actively discussing with Shetland Council alternative models to promote new and improved housing in Shetland.

Mrs Mary Mulligan: The independent valuations of the council housing stock in Western Isles and Argyll and Bute have not been finalised and it would not be appropriate to provide an estimate of the value at this stage.

  Shetland Islands Council and Shetland Homes issued a joint statement in September 2002 indicating that they did not wish to progress the stock transfer that they had been pursuing at that time. Discussions are continuing between the Executive and Communities Scotland and the council regarding the future of its housing stock.

Justice

Miss Annabel Goldie (West of Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how many cases resulted in prosecution that involved cruelty to, and neglect of, animals and in how many of these cases was the prosecution reliant upon evidence from personnel working for, or engaged by, the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SSPCA) in each year since 1999.

Mrs Elish Angiolini: While it is not possible to establish definitively which cases under the relevant legislation depended upon such personnel, it has been possible to identify cases reported by the SSPCA, and other cases where witnesses have been recorded as working for the SSPCA as follows:

  

 Financial Year Cases Reported
 SSPCA Cases
 Police Cases
 ERAD Cases
 Local Authority
 Unknown
 TOTAL
 % of Cases with 
  SSPCA Witnesses


 1999-2000
 36
 41
 3
 2
 15
 97
 39%


 No of cases with SSPCA witnesses
 36
 1
 0
 0
 1
 38
 


 No of cases with no SSPCA witnesses
 
 12
 2
 1
 1
 16
 


 Not known whether SSPCA witnesses
 
 28
 1
 1
 13
 43
 


 2000-01
 34
 50
 0
 6
 13
 103
 34%


 No of cases with SSPCA witnesses
 34
 1
 
 0
 0
 35
 


 No of cases with no SSPCA witnesses
 
 27
 
 2
 2
 31
 


 Not known whether SSPCA witnesses
 
 22
 
 4
 11
 37
 


 2001-02
 34
 29
 4
 4
 5
 76
 51%


 No of cases with SSPCA witnesses
 34
 3
 0
 0
 2
 39
 


 No of cases with no SSPCA witnesses
 
 25
 4
 3
 0
 32
 


 Not known whether SSPCA witnesses
 
 1
 0
 1
 3
 5
 


 2002-03
 16
 41
 1
 12
 0
 70
 24%


 SSPCA witnesses
 16
 1
 0
 0
 0
 17
 


 No SSPCA witnesses
 
 39
 1
 8
 0
 48
 


 Witnesses not known
 
 1
 0
 4
 0
 5

Organ Donation

Shona Robison (Dundee East) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will make representations to Her Majesty's Government regarding the interpretation of the Representation of the People (Amendment) Regulations 2002 regarding organ donor forms being sent out with electoral registration forms.

Shona Robison (Dundee East) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with the Scottish Assessors Association regarding organ donation forms being sent out with electoral registration forms.

Shona Robison (Dundee East) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with the Electoral Commission regarding organ donor forms being sent out with electoral registration forms.

Malcolm Chisholm: I refer the member to the answer given to question S2W-2720 on 3 October 2003. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search ..

Parliamentary Questions

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will review the quality of information it provides in its answers to parliamentary questions.

Patricia Ferguson: Each question is considered very carefully with the aim of providing an answer that is helpful to the member asking the question. The Executive has been working closely with the Procedures Committee on monitoring Parliamentary questions and answers, and is willing to engage further with the committee on this issue.

Planning

Mr Adam Ingram (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has reviewed National Planning Policy Guideline 16; if so, whether results of the review will be placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre, and if not, whether there are plans to carry out such a review and when this will take place.

Mrs Mary Mulligan: Research is under way on the operation and effectiveness of NPPG 16. This is expected to report very shortly. A decision will be taken on whether the guidance should be reviewed when the research findings are known.

Police

Alasdair Morgan (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-2712 by Colin Boyd QC on 1 October 2003, who was interviewed in the course of the inquiry by Strathclyde Police.

Colin Boyd QC: Enquiries made on behalf of the Lord Advocate into allegations of criminal conduct are confidential.

Police

Alasdair Morgan (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-2712 by Colin Boyd QC on 1 October 2003, what actions were undertaken in the course of the inquiry by Strathclyde Police to interview the complainant, Mr Iain McKie, or to invite him to provide further information and what the reasons are for its position on this matter.

Colin Boyd QC: In his letter of 7 April 2003 to the Lord Advocate, Mr McKie set out new information which he considered was relevant to his belief that there had been an attempt to pervert the course of justice in connection with the perjury case against his daughter Shirley McKie. The information was passed to the Complaints and Discipline Branch of Strathclyde Police, who carried out the investigation on behalf of the Lord Advocate. There was nothing in this letter to indicate that he was in possession of any further relevant information in addition to that detailed in the letter. It was not, therefore, considered necessary to interview Mr McKie.

Prison Service

Michael Matheson (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answers to questions S1W-33964, S2W-1868 and S2O-422 by Mr Jim Wallace on 24 February 2003 and Cathy Jamieson on 1 and 18 September 2003 respectively, whether it is considering any alteration of its contract with the operators of HM Prison Kilmarnock to increase the maximum allowed performance-related revenue deduction, given that the prison operators have been penalised for poor performance to the maximum allowed in the contract in seven quarters out of 17 in which the prison has operated, and what the reasons are for its position on this matter.

Cathy Jamieson: I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:

  No. The contractual limit is considered by Scottish Prison Service to be at an appropriate level and provides best value for money.

Residential Care

John Swinburne (Central Scotland) (SSCUP): To ask the Scottish Executive what progress has been made in determining the true cost of providing residential and nursing home care.

Mr Tom McCabe: I refer the member to the answer given to question S20-559 on 2 October 2003 which is available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

  http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search..

Schools

Mr Brian Monteith (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it, or any other publicly-funded body, provides funding to local authorities for improving access or facilities at schools for disabled pupils.

Peter Peacock: The Scottish Executive provides funding directly to local authorities in this area. It is providing £9 million in 2003-04 to support local authorities to prepare and implement accessibility strategies under the Education (Disability Strategies and Pupils’ Educational Records) (Scotland) Act 2002. Accessibility strategies plan to improve access, over time, to the curriculum, to the physical environment and to school information for pupils with disabilities. Funding will increase to £17 million in 2004-05 and 2005-06.

  Inclusion programme funding is also available to local authorities, which have been allocated £20 million in 2003-04, £25 million in 2004-05 and £25 million in 2005-06. This funding helps to support additional costs of including children with special educational needs, who may have disabilities, in mainstream schools.

  This is in addition to the substantial general capital resources which authorities have at their disposal for work on school buildings, including improvements to access and facilities, according to authorities’ priorities. These resources include the capital allocations under which authorities spend in the region of £125 million a year on school buildings, and the schools fund capital grant for improvements to the school estate amounting to £36.7 million in the current financial year and rising to £76.7 million in 2004-05. The Scottish Executive has also announced financial support for authorities for school public private partnerships projects with a capital value of £2 billion which will contribute to the replacement and refurbishment of schools across Scotland, including appropriate access requirements.

Scottish Water

Tommy Sheridan (Glasgow) (SSP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether, as stated by COSLA, any regeneration opportunities for housing, commercial and industrial developments are being adversely affected in Glasgow due to funding difficulties encountered by Scottish Water in providing water and waste removal services and, if so, what plans it has to address planning and co-ordination issues between its departments and Scottish Water.

Ross Finnie: As my answer to question S2W-3243 on 3 November 2003 makes clear, record levels of funding are being made by Scottish Water to begin redressing decades of underfunding.

  The Executive is currently working with a range of stakeholders to formulate future investment plans for Scottish Water. To this end, a working group has been established as part of the wider Quality and Standards III process. It includes representatives from Scottish Water, COSLA, Scottish Environment Protection Agency and the building industry, and officials from a number of areas within the Executive. Among other issues, it is seeking to improve collective understanding of the nature and scale of such constraints, and to develop options to address constraints.

  Dealing with constraints as they arise is of course an operational matter for Scottish Water. Scottish Water is working very hard with all local authorities and its environmental regulator to ensure that all parties have a much better understanding of those areas affected by development constraints, and to look creatively for technical and other options for resolving these issues.

Scottish Water

Des McNulty (Clydebank and Milngavie) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether its approval was required before Scottish Water established Scottish Water Solutions Ltd.

Ross Finnie: Yes.

Scottish Water

Des McNulty (Clydebank and Milngavie) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what processes are used by Scottish Water in relation to the disposal of surplus land.

Ross Finnie: Scottish Water disposes of land in accordance with the rules laid out in the Scottish Public Finance Manual which is available at:

  http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/finance/spfm/spf-00.asp.

Social Inclusion

Brian Adam (Aberdeen North) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of funding under each funding formula that it uses to disburse funds is allocated to redress deprivation factors.

Ms Margaret Curran: The main allocations of funding to local authorities and health boards do not allocate resources specifically to tackle deprivation, although relative deprivation between areas is one of the factors used to construct the formulae.

  However, there are several Executive funding streams that target aspects of deprivation. These include funding for social inclusion partnerships, the changing children’s services fund, the rough sleepers initiative, health improvement fund and education maintenance allowances.

Social Inclusion

Brian Adam (Aberdeen North) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will initiate a cross-cutting review of the effectiveness of current funding formulae in achieving social inclusion.

Ms Margaret Curran: The Executive is currently evaluating the effectiveness of early years policies, including the expenditure on specific programmes such as Sure Start and the Changing Children’s Services Fund that have a strong social inclusion element.

  More generally, the Executive is considering how to improve its collection and presentation of information on cross-cutting priorities.

Voluntary Sector

Rhona Brankin (Midlothian) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how it will provide continuity of support for projects designed to encourage volunteering amongst schoolchildren.

Peter Peacock: The Scottish Executive is working with a number of partners including schools and Volunteer Development Scotland to develop guidance for schools which are developing volunteering programmes for their pupils. This guidance will encourage and support good practice and will provide advice on ensuring there are sound procedures in place to ensure that pupils are safe and can enjoy a positive experience of volunteering. The guidance is being developed in the context of the National Priorities in Education and the Executive’s commitment to teach children and young people the responsibilities and duties of citizenship.

  In addition, we promote an active role for pupils in developing the ethos of their schools. The Discipline Task Group report Better Behaviour – Better Learning (2001) made 36 recommendations. Among these was a recommendation that schools promote buddying and mentoring schemes by which older pupils volunteer to support their younger peers and receive training and support to do so. Local authorities’ reports to the Executive on implementation of Better Behaviour – Better Learning shows implementation of this recommendation has been positive throughout Scotland. Authorities will continue to be encouraged to support these initiatives within their programmes to promote positive behaviour, for which the Executive provides £10 million a year.

  The Scottish Executive is also developing a strategy to support volunteering through a strategic framework for volunteer development in Scotland. This will progress support for volunteering as a cross-cutting issue for policy development and implementation, including the promotion of volunteering among young people through school and community settings. Publication is expected early in 2004.